STF 2024: Iceland University of the Arts Contemporary Dance graduate works 2024

Iceland University of the Arts Contemporary Dance graduate works 2024 is part of the STF 2024: Sõltumatu Tantsu Festival (26.09 - 5.10.2024). Get your festival information and passes HERE

The freshly graduated class of contemporary dance students from Iceland University of the Arts (BA in Contemporary Dance Practices) bring their graduation works from the island to the continent with their project Ð festival. Six new 30-minute dance works consisting of solo, duo, and group performances, compile an event that travels through the home cities of the foreign students of the class, connecting them back to their roots and strengthening the bond between different dance scenes. Ð festival performances are curated specifically for each location. The artists engage local audiences in a dialogue about the importance of contemporary dance in their context, and what can a freshly graduated choreographer bring back home.

Juulius Vaiksoo “Naturally”

Choreographer: Juulius Vaiksoo
Dancers: Juulius Vaiksoo and Leevi Rauhalahti
Length: 20-25 min
Premiere: 28.02.2024, Reykjavik

While watching, ask yourself, what is animal and what is human?

Thank you: Mari Ann Valkna, Torfi Tómasson, Rósa Ómarsdóttir.

Juulius Vaiksoo is a dancer and choreographer from Estonia, currently based in Iceland. Each of his works find their way back to nature topics. Which is also important for him while creating a piece - to be environment friendly on every step.

Leevi Matias Rauhalahti “The Rise and Phall of Working out in a Dress”

Dancer, choreographer, text: Leevi Matias Rauhalahti
Producer of the 2nd song: Ville Kantonen
Length: 25-30 min
Premiere: 28.02.2024, Reykjavik

Working towards, working out, working within & against. A genderqueer identity in its inevitable vessel, the body, searching for shapes. Shapes that would alleviate the coming-across-as-something through elevating it to a state of coming across as the secret third thing.

Researching the ways our bodies take shape in gendered manners, the piece reaches towards representation outside of the gender binary. The fundamentally queer combination of labor and identity creation is highlighted through staging a struggling, enjoying, and autonomic body, in search of the not-yet-here.

Thanks: Juulius Vaiksoo, Christa Ropponen, Vigdís Birna Grétarsdóttir, Olga Maggý Winther, Alice Romberg, Sóley Dúfa Leósdóttir

Trigger warnings: Nudity, age recommendation 15+

Leevi Matias Rauhalahti is a Finnish dancer and performer based in Reykjavík, Iceland. In their practice, Leevi works with a strong physical presence in combination with genderqueerness. Insisting on the body as a storyteller Leevi plays with producing alternative futures, that search for the queer seed in the past, plants it in the current moment, to bloom and provide further seeds in the future.

Alice Romberg “my house eats itself”

Choreographer: Alice Romberg
Original performers: Bertine Bertelsen Fadnes, Leevi Mettinen, María Kristín Jóhannsdóttir
Sound: Alice Romberg
Video: Olivia Due Pyszko, Alice Romberg
Length: 30 minutes
Premiere: 29.02.2024, Reykjavik

A piece about what you think is your home and who lives there. A couch. A cat. A shirt. A you. A house. A bug. Images and places once known that were once created as known and once were created to be exactly in the place that you and they are in right now now now. They and who are they and they wonder who are you if they wonder at all if I wonder at all.

Trigger warning: Low light setting

Alice Romberg is a dancer from Sweden who moved on to dancing after a theater and performance education. She has danced at Kävesta folkhögskola and Iceland University of the Arts. In addition to the pure enjoyment of moving one's body, her dancing and creating relates to existential questions such as what is alive or human or thing.

Vigdís Birna Grétarsdóttir “Stimm”

The team: Eir Önnu Ólafsbur, Frida Adriana Martins, Jón Logi Pálma, Kristín Lilja Geirsdóttir, Lovorka Batelka, Ólafía Bella Ólafsdóttir, Sigrún Ósk Stefánsdóttir, Vigdís Birna Grétarsdóttir
Length: 25 minutes
Premiere: 01.03.2024, Reykjavik

I am autistic. You might not have thought so, but I still am.
In spring of 2024 I got together with 7 other autistic people to make a performance. The result was a performance about stimming and hours worth of recordings of the process. This time around I am alone on the stage, continuing my exploration of stimming and looking back at the process. I am very happy to invite you to this performance but you might just have to put in a little work. So if you don’t know what stimming is I suggest you go find out.

Throughout the performance you are free to change positions or exit at any time. Earplugs and ear protectors will be provided. The language of the performance is Icelandic and English.

Vigdís Birna is a dance artist from Reykjavik, Iceland. Their most recent curiosities include the autonomy of nature and objects, their own autism and the notions of technique and aesthetics in dance. Their current working methods come from a hope for accessibility, multiplicity, sincerity and playfulness in their work.

Olga Maggý Winther “Oh Kiss Me, You Flying Pig”

Creator: Olga Maggý Winther
Cast: Alice Romberg, Christa Ropponen, Juulius Vaiksoo, Leevi Matias Rauhalahti, Olga Maggý Winther, Vigdís Birna Grétarsdóttir
Assistant Choreographer: Rebekka Sól Þórarinsdóttir
Costume Designer: Freyr Guðjónsson
Music Supervisor: Valgerður Embla Grétarsdóttir
Photographers: Eyrún Haddý Högnadóttir & Torfi Þór Tryggvason
Graphic Designer: Valgerður Stefánsdóttir
Length: 30 min
Premiere: 02.03.2024, Reykjavik

In english: Is this joyful or not?

Trigger Warning: Clowns

Olga Maggý Winther has a BA degree in contemporary dance practices, she is also very involved in film both on screen and off screen. She often works with big groups in both her live performance-/ and film-based pieces, she likes to play with gender and sexuality and the stereotypes that follow that. Chaos and order in a mix are the aesthetics that she thoroughly enjoys, and she also owns a horse. Her favorite thing to do on stage or on screen is to play big characters!

Christa Ropponen “<3”

Choreographer & performer: Christa Ropponen
Length: 30 min
Premiere: 29.02.2024, Reykjavik

Is a dance performance & research about (self)-love, empowerment, pleasures and dreams. So come to see me falling (in love) with my pleaser heels and myself, when you are watching me watching you watching me. I love my love and my time, and now I’ll share some of it with you. I'm so loved, lovely, loving and babe. Maybe all we need is love, especially self-love.

Thanks: Rósa Ómarsdóttir, Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Léo Geens, my classmates in Listaháskóli Íslands and ECD3 in Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (AHK), lovers, friends, family and Sin Sisters.

Warnings: Nudity, age recommendation 15+

Christa Ropponen is a dancer from Finland. Christa received her higher education in contemporary dance from Iceland University of the Arts with an exchange semester at Amsterdam University of the Arts.